Exhibition of the LENTOS Kunst
museum Linz\, in cooperation with the Ludwig Museum - Museum of Contemporar
y Art\, Budapest

While the naked female body\, the female nude
is an accepted topic of art\, the naked male body\, after Classical Antiqu
ity\, remained close to invisible for a long time\, the nude man appeared s
olely as a mythological hero or a Christian martyr for centuries. What migh
t be the reason for this invisibility\, and why is the hidden male body sti
ll revealed at times? Through depicitions of the nude male body\, we can tr
ace changes in the social role of men\, the shaping of male identity\, whic
h all is inseparable from changes taking place in society\, and the power s
ystem. The exhibition follows how the meaning of the male nude has altered
in the past hundred years\, how male artists approach their own nudity – br
avely\, though full of doubts\, with curiosity about new life patterns\; an
d also how female artists have conquered a theme that had long been forbidd
en to them.

The exhibition starts around 1900\, in the world o
f the turn of the century Vienna\, when the first big crisis of male identi
ty changed the way we look at the male nude. For modern artists\, the naked
male body divested of every role became bearer of self-revelation\, self-r
ecognition and renewal. From this point on\, the exhibition follows the mal
e nude through the history of the 20th and 21st centuries\, through crises
of identity and phases of sovereignity\, the questioning of traditional mal
e role models\, the search for alternatives\, the face up to weakness and v
ulnerability\, the gaze of desire and the erotic pose.

Apart f
rom a considerable part of the museum’s collection\, the LENTOS Kunstmuseum
Linz\, celebrating its tenth anniversary displayed more than 300 artworks
in the show (26 October 2012 – 17 February 2013)\, loaned from the USA\, as
well as different parts of Europe

The Ludwig Museum\, Budape
st\, displays a version of the exhibition between 22 March 2013 and 30 June
2013\, with an emphasis on the Central and Eastern European presence of th
e topic.